Defining Deviation
by Insanity-Red
Summary: AU Fem!Harry is a reclusive genius who found a way to combine technology and magic. She breaks into the Department of Mysteries to examine the Veil, only to be sent to another dimension. What's with the giant robots? Set after the war against Voldemort.
1. Chapter 1

Okay, this idea really wouldn't leave my head. I really enjoyed writing this, so I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Transformers.

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Defining Deviation - Prologue

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_It has been twenty years since the Battle for Hogwarts had ended._

_Voldemort was long gone, along with the remnants of his Death Eaters that had avoided capture._

_Everyone who had sided against Voldemort in the war was relatively happy. There had been losses, of course; but those close to the ones who had lost their lives had already mourned and gotten on with their lives. _

_Now, I'm, sure you're asking, what happened to the hero of the battle? Has Harry Potter married the love of his life Ginny Weasley, and had kids who are now attending Hogwarts?_

_The answer would have to be no. _

_First of all, Harry Potter doesn't exist. I know, I know. Having a story like this without _Harry effin' Potter_? What _was_ I thinking? _

_Well too bad for you. Harry Potter doesn't exist in this story. Because instead of the absurdly skinny, messy-haired, green-eyed boy, there is the absurdly skinny, messy-haired, green-eyed _girl_._

_Yeah. Girl. Don't diss the gender-bending._

_Besides a few minor changes in her life, this female version of Harry lived a life surprisingly similar to that of her male counterpart. The changes, of course, being that instead of the ridiculously brave, yet slightly moody boy who jumped to conclusions and had a 'saving-people' thing; there was a cunning, opportunistic, slightly spiteful little girl who had learned the art of passive-aggressiveness with the Dursleys, and actually decided to learn all she could about the brand-new world she had been thrust into._

_Therefore, it was no surprise, to her at least, that she was Sorted into the House of Slytherin. (It actually nearly gave the a certain Headmaster a heart attack. Snape just spit out his pumpkin juice.)_

_I know what you're thinking now. How could she have led a life anywhere near similar to the Gryffindor Golden Boy, when she was a nasty, slimy Slytherin?_

_Well, the results were the same at least. Mostly. _

_She did kill Voldemort; but then, that was because he kept gunning for her, and she really wanted to continue her research on combining magic with muggle technology and machinery._

_Anyway, her school years were surprisingly well spent. Without making friends with Hermione and Ron (which she probably wouldn't have done anyway because of her differences from canon!Harry.) she wasn't bogged down by the lazy, petty and jealous redhead, or nagged and picked at by a bushy-haired bookworm who hero-worshipped authority figures as minor-deities. _

_Instead, she kept mostly to herself, becoming known as the Girl-Who-Lived-To-Be-Weird amongst her peers. She always had her nose in a seemingly obscure book, that probably have a treasure trove of obscure knowledge that was surprisingly applicable to real life. She took Ancient Runes and Arithmancy instead of Divination and Care of Magical Creatures._

_She also got the highest scores in all of the classes she was taking, much to the chagrin of Miss Granger, whose only solace was that she had many more classes in which she could dominate._

_By the year the Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests, otherwise known as NEWTs, came around, she had a small Ipod that actually worked in the magic-saturated atmosphere of Hogwarts._

_She gleefully kept the secret of its mechanics from many eager muggleborn students who had, before her discovery, snubbed her._

_There were similarities of course. Snape still hated her. She still played Quidditch like a natural, much to the chagrin of Malfoy. Oh, and Dumbledore still offered everyone Lemon Drops, but that didn't really involve her that much because she made it a point to avoid odd, old men who offered small children candy._

_Okay, okay; moving onward. You'll notice if you look up a few paragraphs, that I said that her being a girl was only the _first _reason as to why she couldn't settle down to have a nice, normal life._

_Well, beside the fact that she wasn't exactly qualified to be normal herself._

_The second reason would have to be the fact that she hadn't aged a day since the Battle for Hogwarts; as in, twenty years. Sure, wizards aged a bit slower than normal people, but twenty years was weird for even them. She still looked not a day older than twenty-five, the age which she had turned the day of the Battle._

_Apparently, being the Master… no female, remember?… eh Mistress? No that sounds kind of… suggestive… Overlord…? Eh, I'll just stick with Master._

_Anyway, apparently being the Master of all three of the Deathly Hallows had a few side-effects. When the all came together, they merged with their holder, making them permanently a part of one another. Of _course_ there would be side-effects!_

_Like, immortality, perhaps._

_Well, at least she has plenty of time to experiment and improve on her life's work, right?_

_Plus, from the Elder Wand, she acquired the ability to use wandless magic, or what was classified as such by the rest of the Wizarding Community._

_She was actually pretty happy about that one. (Look Ma', no hands!)_

_The weirdest thing though, was the fact that her magic… changed, for lack of a better word. It morphed into an electric-purple amorphous blob that sizzled just beneath her skin._

_It gave her a warm, tingly feeling. Literally. Oh, and it also had the tiny side-effect of an increase in static shocks to people. (On the rare occurrence that she actually touched someone.)_

_Currently, she is living a happily reclusive (or happy _because_ it's reclusive) lifestyle in a house she had built from scratch to suit her tastes. She only comes out from her happy little world of innovation and high-speed computers, for her job in the Department of Mysteries as a consultant._

_By the way, her name is Sage Alexandria Potter._

_So Sayeth The Narrator._

Defining Deviation - Chapter One

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Inside the Ministry of Magic, an old, old woman hunched over in the elevator. A few people gave her a second glance, before abruptly looking away as they saw her clothes; the robes of an Unspeakable. She waited with the patience that comes with old age as people scurried in and out, before the contraption finally descended toward her destination.

The elevator dinged and a cool female voice articulated, _"Level Nine, Courtrooms and the Department of Mysteries."_

The old woman hobbled out of the small metal box and walked down the completely empty hallway toward the plain black door at the end. Opening the door, she stepped through, only to change as the door shut behind her.

Her wrinkly old appearance melted away like water, revealing a healthy young woman. Instead of gray and white hair, she now had a messy mop of black covering her head and the back of her neck. Her eyes changed from a watery grey to a brilliant green. Her spine also straightened, and her clothes changed from the robes of an Unspeakable, to a more comfortable amalgam of muggle clothes and a wizard's outer robe.

Tilting her head to the side and cracking her neck, a shudder went down Sage's spine as the transformation completed.

She stepped into the middle of the circular room and waited for the doors to stop rotating at high speeds. Sage occupied herself with humming, and looking at the highly polished floor, so that she wouldn't get blinded by the line the firey blue candles made as they spun.

There was a 'chuh-chink' sound as the doors stopped rotating, and she purposefully made her way to the door on her left. She had been there so many times before that it wasn't that hard to tell the difference between the doors even after they played 'which is which'.

Opening the door, she walked through. As it shut, she heard the tell-tale grinding as the doors started to rotate once again.

Happily inhaling, the stale, cool air of the room she just entered, Sage started to descend the stone steps that led toward the dais in the middle of the room, still humming a nameless tune that echoed eerily in the stillness of the room.

Her necklace jangled slightly as her steps jostled it; a slim, pale hand reached up to grasp the warm metal triangle containing a circle and bisected vertically by a line. The symbol of the Deathly Hallows was remarkably simple considering what it represented; or maybe it was fitting, in an ironic sort of way.

She was not interested in that right now, however. What she was currently focusing on was the ancient stone archway that stood on the platform she was walking toward.

The Death Room was oddly fascinating to one such as her. She had seen death, even experienced it; but now, she could never die. And she always felt something… _more_ in the atmosphere of the room. Hence the reason for her unauthorized visit to the Department of Mysteries.

Sage nimbly climbed up onto the raised stone of the dais and started to examine the Veil, for that is what the archway was in case you hadn't guessed. She slipped on some black, rectangular reading glasses with a few enchantments on them.

The things she had specifically come to study that day, were the glyphs that covered the archway of the Veil.

She had caught a glimpse of them in the few times that she'd been in the Death Room, but she had never had the chance to actually study them.

'Until today.' she thought with a slight smile as she continued to hum.

All the times Sage had previously visited the Department of Mysteries, she had mentally catalogued every security feature and every bit of the layout. Now she had used that knowledge to sneak in. She always had to be prepared, she couldn't imagine just bursting in without any sort of direction as to where she should go. (A/N: Ahaha..haha….)

Sage carefully circled the ancient magical structure, carefully examining the foreign symbols scattered all over it. She cautiously reached out to trace one of the symbols, and abruptly pulled back her hand as a small bolt of purple energy jumped from her hand toward the Veil.

She stared warily at the magical structure through her enchanted eyewear, and, looking through the enchanted glasses, she saw the glyphs on the stonework started to glow slightly, while the tattered black material of the Veil waved gently. The colors of the symbols started blue, then flowed into purple, before changing into red and then going back to blue again in an endless cycle.

She watched with excitement and a bit of trepidation as the Veil started to hum itself, almost like a… like a machine starting up.

Her eyes got almost embarrassingly wide, though I think we can excuse her under the circumstances, as the Veil started to shake… and then change. A rumbling sound echoed through the room, along with the distinct clanging of some kind of metal grinding against metal.

Had she been any other person, she would have panicked, but as it was, her sense of self-preservation won out over human stupidity, and she just jumped backwards off of the dais to hide behind one of the stone benches in case something decided to explode.

When the rumbling and grinding sounds ceased, and there was no catastrophic 'BOOM', she peeked over the edge of her makeshift shield, and saw that the air around where the Veil (had previously?) stood was covered in dust, presumably from the crumbling stone.

She could have blown the dust away with a cleaning charm or two, but she had no idea how her magic would act with what had just happened; plus it would have the unfortunate side-effect of triggering the magic detection wards that were all over the place. Her energy was surging and jumping beneath her skin, like it was excited about something.

Usually she listened to her magic and instincts, but right now, they were warring with each other, one telling her to get close to a potentially unstable magical structure (and that was if it was even still standing) while the other told her to run like a bat outta' hell.

Eventually, her brain sided with magic in the battle and helped duke it out against instincts for the sake of her inventor's curiosity.

So, Sage hunkered down to wait behind her bench until the dust had settled.

After a few minutes, she peeked over the edge of her bench again, only to have her eyes widen drastically. Now, instead of a ancient stone archway with a tattered black curtain hanging from it, there was a presumably just as ancient archway that looked… mechanical. Instead of stone, it was made out of shiny, silver metal, with pipes such as the ones in automobiles and cables of wire. The whole thing was glowing in the same manner as the glyphs that were previously there, and instead of the curtain, the archway was occupied by data streams, like what you'd see on a computer system's check.

Almost without conscious thought, Sage made her way to the dais on which this new marvel lay, clambering agilely over the remnants of the shattered stone. She could feel her magic churning excitedly, like a little puppy whose master just came back home. Even in this haze of wonder, she still had enough sense to not touch it again, thankfully.

'What just happened?' Sage thought with wonder. 'My magic surged, and when it made contact with the Veil… it changed.'

Her hands itched to take out some tools that she always had with her, but she refrained, as she had no idea what tinkering would do. Her fingers twitched lightly, and she was wondering what more she could do as she looked over the new-and-improved Veil, when a symbol made at the very zenith of the arch caught her attention.

It was the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

Her hand unconsciously made its way up to her necklace as she stared at the deceptively innocent-looking glyph.

'Of course.' she thought almost sarcastically. 'It always has something to do with the Deathly Hallows; well, either that, or my prestigiously hyphenated title.'

She was interrupted from her studying of the Veil by a shout that echoed around the Death Room. Her head whipped around to the door, and she saw, much to her irritation, two Unspeakables and a whole contingency squad of Aurors.

"Hey!" presumably the leader of the Auror squad shouted. "What in the blazes do you think you're doing! That's Ministry property! You don't even have permission to be down here!"

'Darn. The Veil changing must have released some magic and triggered some of the detection wards. At least they didn't recognize me.' Sage mentally swore as she edged around the dais to put the Veil in between her and the people who now probably wanted to throw her in prison, or do worse.

But now was not the time for cursing; at least of that variety. She could hear them all clattering down the stairs and yelling at her to come out.

Angry at them for interrupting her monumental discovery, she was about to fling a dozen or so hexes, when the data streams occupying the archway suddenly ceased under the watchful gaze of her enchanted glasses. Even as she stared at the empty space, the lights on the archway all converged to one point, forming the imprint of a hand, with the familiar bisected-circle-in-a-triangle symbol appeared in the middle.

Her hand instinctively reached out to paste her palm to the handprint, her hand drawn to the mark like a magnet, but she halted it an inch or two before it could. 'Should I really do this? Something bad could happen.'

Then she remembered the Aurors that were getting closer every second, and the fact that she had no friends. Oh, and she was immortal as far as she knew.

She pressed her hand to the imprint.

Immediately there was a great noise of humming machinery, and in the center of the archway, a ball of electric blue energy started to gather. It drew itself up into a tiny ball, no bigger than her thumbnail, before rushing outwards in an explosion of discharged energy.

When the blinding light cleared, the Unspeakables who had stayed at the top of the room were horrified to see a crumbled dais, holding nothing but the melted remains of the Veil, and surrounded by black scorch marks and the remains of the Aurors who were caught in the blast of energy.

* * *

The person who had broken in was gone.

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Sage stared around the place she was in with curiosity and calculation. She was floating in an endless black place that reminded her of outer-space . There were gaseous balls of flame that made burning white, yellow, red and blue stars. What she couldn't figure out, however was why she was not dying of either hypothermia or lack of oxygen.

"Sage Alexandria Potter." said a voice in what was simultaneously a rumbling bass, a smooth tenor, and a brilliant alto. She could hear it echoing around her even as she somehow spun in the direction she thought it had originated from (despite her current floating).

In front of her was a glowing form that was made up of some blue energy, tiny particles which twisted and whirled, somehow keeping a semi-cohesive form.

"Who's asking?" Sage was proud to say that there was none of the uncertainty that she currently felt in her voice. Her magic was reacting strangely, purring eagerly under her skin, like it felt connected to the thing in front of her.

"We are the All Spark." stated the voices together. "We are a giver of life and energy, and the Creator of a race of autonomous robotic life forms called the Cybertronians." it briefly morphed into a vaguely humanoid form, but Sage could see differences.

'Living robots?' Sage thought incredulously. But she couldn't deny her instincts and magic, and they were telling her to listen to the All Spark.

"What exactly do you have to do with me?" she asked warily after she forcibly calmed herself.

The All Spark glowed slightly, the contrast between it and the inky blackness of space becoming even greater. "You are the holder of three pieces of Cybertronian technology that, when combined with another, allow for travel between two dimensions."

Sage's brain whizzed, creating theories and throwing them away, before coming up with new ones at high speeds.

"Dimension travel…?" she muttered to herself. "Was the Veil a portal between dimensions…?" She shook her head slightly and asked another question. "How did the technology come to be in my dimension?"

"We are capable of great feats and have nearly endless power." it wasn't a boast, just a simple statement of fact. "One of Our children became over-zealous in his pursuit of power and tried to experiment with Us to create an inter-dimensional gateway. The device he made and imbued with some of Our power created a wormhole and destroyed him while transporting the device to your dimension." There was a pause in the All Spark's speech as Sage absorbed the information.

"The device split into three parts upon it landing in your world." the All Spark's three-tone voice echoed eerily around the cosmos. As it narrated, the particle matched its words and split into three separate forms that whorled and spun as well.

"The Deathly Hallows…" Sage murmured with wide eyes.

The whirling energy continued with It's tale. "Because the device was imbued with Our power, the separate pieces were semi-sentient and could change their appearances as well as decide whether the beings that wielded them were worthy of their power. The device chose you as worthy to wield it, and because you were the first to gather three together, it merged with you." The three blobs it had separated into earlier became one mass again.

Sage's mouth dropped open slightly. That must be why her magic changed. It was absorbing whatever of the All Spark's energy was in the Hallows. That the All Spark was a source of life also explained her not aging. But why did they think she was worthy of it?

"However, the pieces had lost much of their power over the years, and did not have enough energy to transport you back to its original dimension. When you came in contact with a mechanism that was similar in function, the device that you absorbed changed it so that it would become compatible with its own technology." The All Spark continued, it's particle briefly forming into an imitation of the Veil's archway before morphing again.

Sage let it all sink in. "So this is the dimension the device came from originally?" she asked cautiously.

"No." the All Spark intoned bluntly. "This place is In Between. The device could not store enough power to make it back to its original dimension."

Sage furrowed her brow slightly. "So what is going to happen to me?" she asked the question on her mind. Thoughts of eternity spent in an endless black space threatened to cloud her mind, but she pushed them away as best as possible.

"We have gone through your life and have decided that you have earned a place in Our dimension." the All Spark said matter-of-factly. "You are not a seeker of fame or power and will use the power you have with wisdom. You will have deserved your place in the world whichever side you pick in the upcoming war."

Sage didn't know whether to feel violated that her entire life had been probed, or flattered that the creator of some advanced species thought she was worthy of some of its power and a place in its dimension.

"We shall also grant you a few more abilities for you to find the limits of." The All Spark stated.

It was at that point in time that Sage lost consciousness.

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A/N: You know what? When I was looking for flower names, you know, to keep up the trend of Lily and Petunia (which, by the way, means 'resentment' and 'anger') Well, I found some pretty interesting plants with interesting meanings.

But anyway, Sage means 'wisdom' and, ironically enough, 'long life'.

Plus, did you know that there is a flower called the 'Bumblebee Orchid', which means 'Industry'?

And a plant named 'Allspice' means 'Compassion' which fits the _Modus operandi _of Optimus

Anyway, thanks for reading this. Please review and tell me your opinion on it! ^-^


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello people! I'm glad to see that this story got such a great response for having only one chapter posted! Here is a new chapter for you to (hopefully) enjoy. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I especially hope you appreciate the quick update, because it's so hard to get inspiration for my stories sometimes.

Please, post a review once you've read the new chapter, so I know what you liked or disliked about this segment. (And please, please, please try to write more than just a few words. I know that most people probably enjoy longer reviews that are well thought-out; I know that I do.) Feel free to suggest some stories that are in the same section as this; you never know, they may help my creative processes to get along a bit faster!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Transformers.

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Defining Deviation - Chapter Two

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Sage fuzzily came around, only to immediately realize that something was _wrong_. Wrong enough for the word to be italicized. And it wasn't just the fact that she was sore all over in an identified area that smelled funny.

It was her magic, she realized after a moment. It had changed; again. It now felt more like the Deathly Hallows than ever. Like more of the same kind of energy had been added… to… it… Oh.

Apparently the All Spark and even the bits of energy separated from it just loved to alter her natural composition. It was starting to annoy even her, who usually let most irritants roll off her like ducks off a water's back. Er. Water off a duck's back. Man, she was really out of it.

Sitting up, she had to hold in a groan of pain as she took in a fresh wave of soreness from every nerve ending in her body. She forced her eyes to open and one of them twitched as she took in her surroundings with no small amount of incredulity.

'You have got to be kidding me.' she thought as she watched a bunch of people dressed in severely outdated clothing, leading a bound and gagged woman toward a noose in the center of a town square. 'I really, really hope this is some kind of reenactment of witch hangings, and not a real witch hanging. I mean it's not like the All Spark actually sent me back into the late seventeenth century, right?'

Her half-hearted wishful thinking was dashed to pieces as they pushed the sobbing woman up the steps, pulled the noose around her neck and tightened it, before the trapdoor was released.

A sickening snap rent the air.

Sage stared blankly as a priest started to preach on the evils of witchcraft, condemning the 'witch', Bridget Bishop.

Sage could only watch on in a state of shock. 'Well at least I know when I am now. I didn't even have to cast a _Tempus_ spell.' she thought, rather morbidly. The first of the Salem Witch Trial hangings started in 1692. Never before had she actually been grateful for History of Magic classes taught at Hogwarts (They were boring as heck, and most of the students spent their time in the class catching up on their sleep). She didn't think that history would be the same in this new dimension, but the clothing that the townspeople were wearing and the name of their victim both fit in with the beginning of the Salem With Trials.

Turning her head away from the awful sight, she tried to think of what she was going to do now.

'Well… first I had better check on my magic and see if I can figure out what exactly the All Spark did when 'granting' me new abilities. Then I supposed I'll see if I still have all the equipment I took with me to the Department of Mysteries. Then I'll have to check just how different this dimension is from mine.' she thought logically.

Taking another glance at the hanging, she saw that they were now taking down the corpse of the supposed 'witch'.

'I think I'd rather find a safe spot before checking my magic.' she thought with a slightly grossed-out expression on her face.

With that, she spun on one foot and Apparated with a quiet 'pop'.

The sensation of being squeezed through a tube was barely noticeable to her now after having used that mode of transportation so many times. She landed in a slight crouch, looking around the area with calculation. She had transported herself to the coordinates she remembered as being out in the middle of nowhere even in modern day. Hopefully there would be nothing to disturb her concentration.

Looking around at the spectacular rock formations of Nevada, she stretched out her magic in a useful little technique that allowed her to sense life and energy. When she was satisfied that the only living things in a five mile radius were a couple of desert animals and a few hardy shrubs, she settled down into a cross-legged position.

She took a few minutes to admire the magnificent landscape of the wind-sculpted rock formations, before continuing with original intentions. Within a few minutes, she was deep into her meditation and was diving inward toward the core of her magic and her mindscape.

Once she was sufficiently deep, she had to restrain her initial reaction of gaping at the gigantic mass of pulsating energy in front of her. It was still the same electric purple as previously, maybe leaning a bit more toward the blue side now, but there was about three times more of it. She looked closer, and saw a large rope of the energy branching off from the main mass; a connection to something outside her body. It seemed very familiar.

'Of course it seems familiar.' she thought to herself after a moment or two, resisting the urge to smack her forehead. 'It's the All Spark. Well, I guess this _is_ it's dimension, so it makes sense for it to be here.' she reasoned. 'I'm guessing that since I have some of it's energy, I'm connected with it somehow.'

Sage shook her head slightly to clear her mind of previous contemplations before moving onward. Mentally accessing the portion of her mind that held her abilities, she checked them to make sure everything was the same.

"What the…?" she said out loud. Apparently she now had more than one Animagus form. She couldn't tell what it was though, only that she now had the potential to turn into something besides a Maned Wolf. However, she didn't have the necessary Potions ingredients (sure she is crazy prepared for most things, but not really Potions) to make the draught that would allow her to see the new form and try to change into it, so she moved on to the next series of internal scans.

"Weird, weird, weird…." she muttered as she came out of her meditation. Not much had been changed, except for the extreme boost in power as well as the inaccessible Animagus form.

Now that she was sure that everything was okay with her mentally and magically, she stood from her position to check on her physical condition as well as her supplies. Testing the flexibility of her arms and legs, she found that nothing was wrong except for a little bit of stiffness and soreness; but that was probably just from being on the ground for an indeterminate amount of time. Maybe an hour, from the current position of the setting sun.

Taking off the outer robe she was wearing, she set in on the ground, leaving it for after she had checked over the clothes underneath. Her purple and black t-shirt had nothing hidden in it, except for a few magical runes inscribed for protection. Her Deathly Hallows necklace was still warm, and therefore still charged with enough of her energy to create a small burst of power, intense enough to cut through diamond. All her weapons were still strapped to her arms, most of them able to channel energy that would give them an extremely sharp blade, while some were more long-range. Her comfortable army-green pants hid a couple of modified, longer-barreled guns that were powered by magic.

Her enchanted glasses weren't cracked or bent, thankfully, so she conjured the case for them and tucked them into a pant-leg pocket. Hooked around the top of her ears were a couple of nifty devices that she created that amplified her hearing factor as well as working as communication devices that would allow her to transmit any type of signals to any system that she could hack (which pretty much everything) but the communications factor wouldn't be of much help until a couple hundred years or so passed. She also had a couple of runic earrings that protected her from any kind of diseases or poisons. On her feet were a pair of plain white and black trainers that were also inscribed with runes for speed, durability and comfort.

Satisfied with her under clothes, she picked her outer cloak back up and put it on. It was her favorite article of clothing because it was made of black dragon-hide, which was as good as chain mail _without _any additions, and had all sorts of enchantments cast on it. She would never get too hot nor cold while wearing it because of the temperature-regulating charms. Plus, it had a high cool-factor because of its ability to billow dramatically with the slightest breeze. And there was the fact that it was just darn comfy.

Once she was done checking her equipment over, the shock that she had been holding back from being transported to a new dimension finally set in. Whereas most people would have a mixed response to being torn from all they had previously known (Perhaps hysteria, grief, anger, etc.), all Sage had previously known wasn't all that great.

An almost giddy smile stretched across her face. She had a whole new world to explore and discover, where she could be her own person without everyone having preconceived notions of how she should act, and she could finally _live_ exactly the way she wanted to in the first place. She almost clapped her hands in sheer delight.

Transforming into her Animagus form of a maned wolf, she let out a happy bark, before loping off into the distance to enjoy the arid heat of the desert afternoon.

Romping around without a care in the world had to be the most wonderful thing she had recently done; well besides her recent break-in at the Department of Mysteries and the whole dimension-hopping thing. She supposed it was _because_ of those recent events that even the simple action of chasing her tail have more happiness in it than usual.

Delighting in the rush of adrenaline cause by her moving about, she channeled a bit of magic into her lengthy limbs to heighten the sensation along with her physical capabilities. With a doggy grin, she also pushed a bit into her claws and, taking a running start, leapt onto one of the outcrops sticking out of a nearby rock formation. With a series of long, slightly risky jumps, and copius use of her diamond hard claws, she was high enough in altitude to feel the cool wind blowing around her lanky frame.

Once at the top, she lay down to take a breather and admired the beautiful view she had of the reddish rock that occupied the desert as her legs burned pleasantly with exertion. The bright, yellow sun crept downwards over the horizon, painting the sky a beautiful mixture of rich reds and oranges. Shadows crept across the solid packed dirt that made up the desert floor like long, black fingers reaching for the encroaching darkness on the opposite end of the sky.

With a sense of contentment that she hadn't experience in a long time spreading a warm, fuzzy feeling throughout her body, Sage determined it then and there; she was going to enjoy this new segment of her life to the fullest.

* * *

315 years later - 2007

The quiet whirring sounds of machinery filled the air of a large room. The room itself was about the size of a football field and the ceiling was at least fifty feet tall; that wasn't the most extraordinary thing, however. The place was nearly filled with machinery in various stages of repair.

On one of the many tables of the room, there were several cell-phones all of different models; some of them were taken apart, with their pieces scattered haphazardly across the workstation, while others had been put back together with changes made to them. On another table, there was an assortment of odd-looking gadgets, all with different functions.

Occupying about a corner of the room, there was a collection of modified screens and computers; those that were turned on were all currently running at speeds beyond normal human-made technology. Reclining in a particularly cushy-looking office-chair was a young woman.

The first thing you would probably notice about her were her piercing green eyes, but as they weren't opened at the moment, the first thing you'd notice if you looked at her just then would have to be her scars. She had many all across her body in different shapes and sizes, and they should have given her an almost dangerous air, but they were currently offset by the pastel purple bunny slippers she was wearing.

The girl stirred lightly, absently stretching out her muscles that were a bit stiff from sleeping in a chair, regardless of how comfortable it was. She yawned and reached upwards toward her extremely messy mop of hair to scratch at her scalp.

A loud buzzing noise interrupted the quiet calm of the whirring machines, making the girl jump slightly.

"ARIS, will you please turn off that alarm?" Sage asked in a relaxed tone.

The acronym, which stood for Artificial Response and Intelligence System, was the name she had granted to the computer system that helped run the house.

"Are you sufficiently awakened, sir?" came a dry, female voice from the speakers that were equipped to the computer.

"I was awake before you started with that infernal noise-making." Sage protested in good humor, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Sometimes I wonder; why I would even program you to do that?" she wondered aloud.

"Because you wanted to make sure that you awoke before 6:30 A.M. every day, even if your internal clock failed you." ARIS intoned blankly.

"That was a rhetorical question, ARIS." Sage said absentmindedly, already moving on to something else. She scooted her extremely comfy office chair toward the main computer, but not before checking the status of the monitor she kept on at all times.

"Sector Seven's been busy. Imitating the signal of All Spark energy in New Mexico to try and lure in one of the Cybertronians that crashed here in 2003. I wonder when they're going to learn that they're probably never going to capture another one. I mean, they are an extremely advanced species. What does it say about the difference in progress between our races, that the humans only gained modern technology from reverse-engineering it from a Cybertronian." she mused, before once again turning her attention toward the main computer. After feeling a surge of energy across her bond to the All Spark, she had investigated why it was being used. When she had found an underground government agency that technically 'didn't exist', she had decided to let them play tinker-toy with their new alien discoveries. Sage had kept tabs on them of course, but she wasn't going to break in and retrieve the All Spark unless they tried to do something _really_ bad.

Touching her hand to the yard-long monitor, she allowed a small spark of energy to travel from her hand to the computer. The computer obligingly booted up. 'Such a handy little trick, even if it did take me a while to learn how to regulate how much energy to use. I did have extreme motivation I suppose.' she mused to herself. 'I wouldn't want to bring anything else to life after that first little monster that tried to decapitate me. And there was the fact that if I let loose a crapload, I'd probably bring down all the Cybertronians on me like flies to honey. The only reason the All Spark hasn't been located yet is because the Hoover Dam hides its radiation.'

"Okay ARIS, it time for your daily systems check." Sage said cheerily, as she tried to think up a test that would allow her to tell if ARIS was still running as efficiently as ever.

"Joy." ARIS deadpanned.

Indifferent to the somewhat snarky personality of her computer, Sage continued to wrack her brain for a test as she started to play solitaire on her computer. "Alright, I got one." she said with a smile. "Why don't you check to see if there is a pattern to the places that the 2003-Cybertronian has visited. The one who seems to keep separate from the others."

"Yes, sir." ARIS intoned as it, rather she, got to work.

"And while you're at it, send down one of those pre-made smoothies that I mixed the other day. I'm in the mood for something sweet this morning." Sage added casually.

Almost immediately, there was a small dinging noise, like when an elevator opened, and Sage reached her hand toward a tube that had a tray underneath the end. The tube led up to her kitchen, an straight into a compartment in her customized refrigerator where she stored drinks that she made. It was a previous project she worked on so that she wouldn't have to climb up a fifty-foot ladder every time she wanted to wet her throat.

Grabbing the drink, she took a sip, not turning her attention from the game of solitaire currently displayed on her screen. She nearly spit it out in surprise, but forced herself to swallow it instead; it was extremely sour, made with lemons and limes. 'Of course.' she thought… well, sourly. 'The first one ARIS picks has to be one of the non-sweet ones I made.'

After a few seconds, however, her impending sulking session was interrupted by ARIS completing her search. Locations from around the western States were listed along the screen, along with the dates that they were visited. There were also a few pictures of a 1977 Camaro transforming into a giant, yellow robot, that were taken by government satellites.

Also listed were a few theories as to why those specific places were on their resident E.T.'s visit list.

Sage scanned the hypothesis's ARIS had come up with, not particularly interested, until she noticed that one of them was highlighted. "ARIS is there a reason one of these is highlighted?" she asked, straightening from her slouched position in her chair, a glint of interest appearing in her unique eyes.

"Is this a rhetorical question as well, sir?" ARIS asked in a ironic tone.

"No ARIS." Sage said as she read over the theory. 'Tracking down descendants of Archibald Witwicky? Why?'

"That is the most likely reason as to why those specific places were visited." ARIS stated.

"He was the one who discovered N.B.E.-1, as Sector Seven calls him, right?" Sage asked aloud. ARIS gave a short beep in confirmation. "What, is he hoping that one of Archibald's descendants will know where Iceman is being kept, or something?"

ARIS was silent.

"Well, if it's this important to a giant, alien robot, I should probably look into it." Sage smirked, before rapidly tapping a few keys on the keyboard in front of her, all the while thinking. 'Maybe it has something to do with that war the All Spark mentioned. I can't tell if I'm happy or disgruntled at the notion. It _is_ getting kind of boring around here lately.' Shaking her head slightly at the conjecturing of her mind, she got on with her self-appointed task.

In less than half an hour, she had Samuel James Witwicky's address, phone number, and driver's license displayed on her large monitor. She felt that she almost had proof of some god of Irony existing when she saw that he lived in Nevada as well; not even a State away from the Iceman his great-great-grandfather had discovered. She had also found a way into his computer mainframe, and was searching for anything referring to the Iceman or the All Spark, or even anything to do with aliens or giant robots.

The only thing that may have been even loosely relevant, was the fact that he was currently selling a pair of glasses that Archibald Witwicky had worn on his explorative journey to the Arctic Circle, where he had discovered Iceman. It had amused Sage when she had read that the teenager's account name on eBay was ladiesman217. He didn't look anything like any ladies' man she had ever seen in any of the photographs she had found of him; more like one of those slightly dorky guys that was awkward, yet slightly adorable. Almost like a little puppy whose feet were still to big for its spindly, little legs.

Sage absently traced a few pinkish scars that stretched across her left arm, ignoring the slightly dulled, ticklish sensation it caused. 'I suppose I'll have to pay Tranquility a visit or three. I have a feeling that something major is about to happen. Whether it's something good or bad has yet to be determined.'

* * *

A/N: Did you know that the Salem Witch Trials actually had no burnings at the stake? I did some research before writing this chapter, and all of the victims were hung, or in one case, crushed with stones because he wouldn't plead guilty or not guilty.

There may or may not be further mentions of Sage's travels through history, but I'm sure that you can guess she was in quite a few fights (maybe wars) because of all of the scars.

Hopefully, in the next chapter, I'll start adding parts from the movie. Hopefully.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I hope you all enjoy this new chapter! It was fun to write. I spent forever trying to find a car that I liked for Sage to drive, but in the end, I went with a concept car that I already knew of, because her vehicle mode wasn't _that_ important.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, nor do I own Harry Potter.

* * *

Defining Deviation - Chapter Three

* * *

Before gallivanting off on what may very well be a dangerous quest, Sage wisely decided to first make sure she was well-prepared; she had been in Slytherin, after all.

First things first, she wanted a nice, big breakfast.

Spryly leaping from her cushy office chair, she strode over to the far end of her laboratory and shimmied up the extremely tall ladder that was there. The ladder ended with a trapdoor at the top, which opened up to reveal the floor of her linen closet. The upside to the unusual entry point, was that you wouldn't see it if you didn't know what to specifically look for, and even then, it was hidden under an illusion charm; plus, there was the fact that it always smelled like laundry detergent, which was quite refreshing considering some of the stuff she worked with in her lab.

A minuscule, serene smile made its way to Sage's face as she walked into her relaxed, sky blue and stainless-steel kitchen. Contrary to what some might think, what with her slave-like childhood, she did enjoy cooking when she wasn't being forced to do so for her piggish relatives. She efficiently made her way around the spacious kitchen, snatching up all of the things she'd need to make her preferred breakfast.

Surprisingly, she'd been able to find all of her favorite food brands in her new dimension. In fact, the only things that seemed to be different from her old universe, were the existence of Cybertron, and that she was now the only person in the world who could use magic. She wasn't actually that upset as one might think with the loss of the magical community. If anything, the lack of magic and users of it made things easier for her. With her being the only capable of using magic, there was no one else trying to regulate its use, and she was free to use her power however she wanted.

She was happy to find that the non-magical world had developed in exactly the same way (except for the things changed by the Cybertronians' crash landings, like the creation of Sector Seven), because she had come to enjoy many forms of entertainment that the muggles had come up with, back in her old world. With so little having changed, she was able to watch her favorite movies, read her favorite books, and play her favorite games (video or otherwise). She had found that the fictional worlds created by different peoples' imaginations often gave her wonderful inspiration for her inventions.

Her mind wandered as she went through the familiar motions of cooking her favorite breakfast. While she was on the train of thought involving her inventions, she _did_ have a few that she thought would be helpful with her approaching self-imposed adventure. The kind of home-made gadgets that would be helpful on any most-probably-dangerous escapade; especially the kind that was dangerous and involved gigantic, sentient robots.

After eating through her spicy omelet with toast on the side at an easy pace, and drinking a particularly healthy glass of milk (which had a special vitamin supplement powder in it which she had invented during a particularly boring year), she was soon done with her morning meal. Casting a quick cleaning charm on her dishes, because that was a domestic duty that she did _not_ enjoy, she walked down the hallway toward her bedroom. After all, she couldn't exactly go on a potentially epic quest in her pastel purple bunny slippers.

Despite the fact that she liked them, no one would take a short girl in bunny slippers seriously, no matter how many scars she had. Although, she was kind of tempted to wear them, just so she could say that she met (or fought) a giant alien robot in her bunny slippers; however, sadly, she was more practical then that when it came to life-risking. She had no desire to see how painful it would be, to be squished by a enormous, metal foot just because she tripped over one of the long ears on her slippers.

Rather inappropriately, she began to whistle a rather jaunty tune as she strapped on a few weapons before slipping on her favorite 'work' shirt. It was loose enough to not show her hidden weapons, whilst not enough to get in the way of movement. It had the bonus of being a nice forest green color with black stripes down the sleeves. And, as with all of her clothing, it had runes sewn onto the inside that gave her rudimentary protection from all types of harm.

Onto her legs (After strapping on a couple rather dodgy things), she pulled up a pair of comfortable drawstring pants. There were actually pretty simple, except for the expanding charms on the pockets, which allowed her to fit a small closet's worth of stuff inside each one.

On her feet (after putting on some plain, white socks), instead of her comfortable, yet slightly ridiculous bunny slippers, she slipped on a practical pair of boots. They had steel soles, along with some charms that made them sturdier and easier on her feet. Her favorite part about them, however, were the slightly pointed ends, that made it extra painful for the recipient of one of her kicks.

Looking into the full-length mirror on the back of her bedroom door, she was satisfied to see that nobody would find anything extremely out of the ordinary with her unless they were specifically looking for deviations from the norm. Sure, she had a multitude of scars from the various hazards during her long, long life, but she was wearing long sleeves and pants that reached her ankles, so they wouldn't attract that much attention; there were a couple on her face and neck area, but her extremely messy hair mostly covered them.

All-in-all, she looked like a normal, if not a tad short and skinny, young woman.

She was almost amused by the very thought.

After being suitably dressed for any adventure she may go on that day, she made her way out of her room and back toward the linen closet. Bending down to open the trap door, she placed one foot on either side of the ladder and slid down with the ease of practice. The purple magical fires dotted across the ceiling started up, one by one, as soon as her feet touched the metal flooring.

She absently scratched her head as she looked over the rather chaotic work place she had.

"Hey ARIS? Scan the room for my glasses, will you?" she asked as she walked over to the nearest table.

"Yes sir." ARIS said. After only a couple seconds, she was finished with her appointed task. "They are on the table approximately ten feet to your left and fifteen feet forward." ARIS droned.

"Thanks ARIS." Sage stated absentmindedly as she followed her computers directions. She soon came to the correct worktable, and snatched up her enchanted glasses. They had gotten a few improvements over the years, including upgraded scanning capabilities, and the change to transition lenses that would darken when it got brighter. Sunglasses were always cool, and she had never enjoyed the sharp twinge of discomfort that she got whenever she made the walked from the dim lighting of her house to a sunny day outdoors.

Putting the rectangular glasses over her eyes, where they were charmed to stay until she herself took them off, she swiveled her head to scan for the inventions she wanted to test out before she left for Tranquility.

A small 'aha' left her mouth as small arrows appeared on the edges of the lenses pointing her in the right direction. She easily found what she was looking for with the glasses on, and after gathering them up in her arms, she walked to the opposite end of the laboratory from the ladder. Unlocking the metal door that was in front of her with a burst of magic, she walked through and, after shutting the door behind her, proceeded to climb up the long flight of stairs that was there.

She took the steps two at a time, and swiftly made it to the top. With another burst of magic to unlock this door, she emerged into her garage.

After locking the door behind her, she made her way to the switch that would raise the garage door. Walking forward hastily with excitement at testing her new inventions, she ducked under the still-moving door and made her way around the building.

Even in her anticipation, she could acknowledge that it was a beautiful day; especially with the forest surrounding her property providing shade from the bright sun. There were a few puffy clouds in the sky, which was a nice robin's egg blue. The leaves of the trees all around were fluttering on the cool summer breeze that kept the temperature regulating charms on her clothing from kicking in.

All in all, it was one of her favorite kinds of day. Especially with the bug-repellant charms scattered around.

Sage grinned as she arrived in her backyard; or rather, her weapons range. With her careful house location, she was not worried about anyone hearing the weapons going off, or even feeling ground tremors from some of the bigger explosions. Her property was large, and at least five miles away from any other place with people. The wards around her land, besides redirecting people with ill intentions and some other things, also kept satellites from spotting anything.

Hence, with not having to worry about the government swooping down on her for disturbing the peace, or even building illegal weaponry, a large portion of the ground behind her house was dedicated to being a shooting range. A majority of the terrain was riddled with craters of varying sizes - some from the more explosive weapons she came up with, or even from accidents with a few experimental inventions that didn't work out as planned. There were also smaller targets set up for some of her less explosive weaponry, such as modified sniper guns and pistols, used to keep her aim sharp.

There was also an agility course she had created, which kept her body in shape for when she may need to do something… agile. Plus, there were some training dummies set up for her use, whether for practicing a fighting style, or just beating something up out of frustration. So, despite her scientist tendency to hole herself up in her laboratory sometimes, she had a lithe, lightly muscled body. She even had a light tan, and the hair on the top of her head had lightened a bit from pitch-black; enough to show the red tint to her hair that she assumed she had inherited from her mother. It was actually weird, because the hair underneath was still black as tar.

A grin of anticipation worked its way onto her face, and she set down one of the weapons on a picnic table she had created in case she ever wanted to eat outdoors. Looking over the remaining invention that she was carrying, she walked over to the shooting range; the part with the craters, not the smaller targets. Gingerly plucking up a pair of earphones that would keep her ears from being damaged by the blast, she set them snugly around her head, and walked to her favorite firing position.

Sage planted her feet firmly on the ground, even channeling a bit of magic into her legs, and raised her arms to brandish the… two-inch long pistol. Bracing herself, she aimed the tiny weapon, and pulled the thin trigger with two fingers.

A loud bang filled her ears, even through the earphones, and the recoil threw her backwards a couple of yards. She landed roughly on her back with a great whoosh of air escaping her lungs. She lay there on the ground, staring blankly up at the sky for a few minutes, and trying to regain her breath. The moment she did, she let out a cackle of laughter, reminiscent of a mad scientist, or a stereotypical witch… both of which she was

(Except for the stereotypical part).

Stumbling unsteadily to her feet, she kept on laughing. "It worked!" she crowed. "Didja see that ARIS?"

"Yes, sir." a monotone voice came from parts of the glasses hooked around her ears; Sage had long combined the earpiece from years before with her glasses. "The sound nearly blew my speakers out." ARIS said unenthusiastically.

Ignoring her boring computer's personality again, Sage continued to talk with glee. "I have successfully replicated the Noisy Cricket from Men in Black!" she crowed. "An even better version!" she continued as she observed the damage created by her newest miniscule weapon.

There was a large furrow dug into the ground, at least a yard wide, that continued forward for no less than twenty feet. It was pretty impressive for such a tiny thing, but that was the entire point.

"The energy output is phenomenal!" Sage carried on. "And the recoil problem is easy to fix, if I just channel a bit of magic into the ground to keep me anchored! And the best thing about this, is that if anyone else tries to fire this thing, they'll either do a couple of backwards flips and break something, or dislocate their arms! Maybe both!" she sounded a bit more gleeful than one should sound when talking about bodily harm to another.

"Wonderful, sir. I have added the results and your ramblings to your notes on the weapon." ARIS deadpanned.

After spending a few more minutes, dare I say it… _fangirling_ over her new toy, Sage calmed down enough to test out the other weapon she had brought with her.

This time, she pulled out an odd-looking thing; it had a longer handle with a grip that she could comfortably wrap her hand around, and grew bulkier toward the end, before tapering to a blunted point. It was a coated with a shiny chrome color, and there were several buttons on the bulkier part.

She held the arm holding it forward, aiming the end at the nearest target, and her thumb pushed down on one of the buttons. Something akin to a laser beam came from the end, and hit the target spot on. A crackling sound carried through the air, and from the spot the that beam hit, ice slowly blossomed in a two-foot radius in all directions, leaving a frozen solid circle in the middle of the target.

Sage smiled happily, her enthusiasm wasn't as great as it would normally be, because this was not the first version of a Star Trek phaser that she had created. Plus, when proceeded by the Noisy Cricket, the phaser wasn't quite as exciting.

It would definitely be useful if she had to go toe-to… er torso with a Cybertronian. From her hacking of the Sector Seven database, she had discovered that the only reason the could hold Iceman was because he was kept frozen solid at all times. The extreme cold probably kept his systems from running like usual, so having a freeze-ray of sorts would be helpful.

"Got everything ARIS?" Sage asked as she walked up close to the target. Under closer examination, she could see that the ice was about an inch-and-a-half thick. A satisfied smirk appeared on her face as she started her walk back to the garage.

Once back inside, she grabbed her black, dragonhide trench-coat off of its hook in the garage. She made a mental checklist, and after running through it, she slid into her car.

Her vehicle was modeled after the Peugeot 908 RC concept car from the year before in 2006. It, of course, had a few subtle differences. For example, instead of reading 908 RC on the bumpers, the spaces were blank. Where the Peugeot insignia should have been, there was the symbol of the Deathly Hallows instead of a lion rampant. She had also tweaked a few things in the frame to make it even more aerodynamic than before. Plus, instead of being pitch black, it was painted a dark shade of green with racing stripes the color of grey silk.

She had also made a few modifications to the inside, of course.

Making herself comfortable on the silk-grey colored driver's seat, she traced the Deathly Hallows symbol embossed on the middle of the steering wheel with her thumb, before pulling out of her garage.

"ARIS, lock down the house." Sage stated, keeping her eyes on her very long driveway. "And make sure that the wards are set to keep people away. I don't particularly like socializing. Especially not with government people."

"Yes, sir." the voice of ARIS came from the screen in the middle of the dashboard. After a few seconds, there was a beeping noise. "The wards are fully operational. Like always." ARIS added the second part with a bit of 'you-knew-that-already' injected into her impassive voice.

"Can't be too careful." Sage said, as she gave a harsh jerk to her steering wheel and careened around the corner of a road.

ARIS couldn't tell if that was sarcasm or not, even with her advanced comprehension systems.

"I want you to keep an eye on all of Sector Seven's activities while I'm not in the house." Sage instructed. "I also want you to keep track of any odd occurrences - such as reports of giant robot or meteor crashes."

"Yes, sir." ARIS replied immediately. "When would you like the results?"

Sage thought for a moment. "Update me every twenty minutes, but if you see a Cybertronian on the satellite images, contact me immediately." she ordered.

"Affirmative." ARIS answered in her normal monotone.

With Sage's driving style, she made it into Tranquility, and was soon cruising through the streets. After a moment or two, she reached out toward the screen on her dashboard. Lightly tapping a few buttons on the touch-screen, she swiftly pulled up the information she had on one Samuel Witwicky.

'He should probably still be in school right now…' she thought as she brought up the address to the local high school that he was registered at.

The engine of her car revved slightly as she coasted down the street toward the location. In about ten minutes, she was parked on the road in front of the high school, and watching the entrance. She set her glasses' sensors to show her when they detected Sam, or any Cybertronian signals came into her range.

And then she settled in to wait. She didn't particularly care for waiting, preferring do be doing things; but anyone's capacity for patience would skyrocket if they had been around for a few hundred years.

After an indeterminate amount of time spent just absentmindedly staring out the windshield of her car, Sage was torn from her contemplations by the voice of her computer.

"Sir, there has been an attack on a military base in Qatar." the cool voice of ARIS rang through the car.

"And?" Sage asked expectantly. She was pretty sure it hadn't been twenty minutes yert, so this had something to do with their alien visitors. "Give me a full report."

"An unknown helicopter landed on base, escorted by two military jets. When the pilot and crew were ordered to evacuate the vehicle, the helicopter transformed into a Cybertronian." ARIS reported. "The Cybertronian proceeded to launch several missiles, and several electric bursts capable of shattering glass and exploding machinery. It then made its way to a building and extended its hand through the roof. It hooked up to the mainframe of the computer system, and started to download files."

Sage's mind worked furiously. After all these years, at least one of the Cybertronians was taking drastic actions; and it was trying to download information from a military database? Was it after the All Spark? Or maybe Iceman?

"Upon being unable to finish its download, the Cybertronian began systematically destroying the entire base, but not before dispatching a drone of some sorts that I was only able to gain a glimpse of. From what I have seen, it had the vague appearance of a scorpion and the ability to travel underground. The drone is presumably being sent after the small squad of soldiers that managed to escape with their lives." ARIS stated.

"Interesting." Sage murmured.

Sage examined the footage of the attacking Cybertronian that was displayed on the dashboard screen. Apparently her feeling that something big was going to happen had been correct. And she was sure something like this would happen again.

After all, the download hadn't been finished.

"Hey ARIS, exactly how quickly was that Cybertronian able to hack the database?" she asked with a scientist's curiosity, eager to know if it was anything like her abilities when she used her techno-magic.

"The hacking process was just as fast as your own capabilities." ARIS declared after a few calculations.

"Well, that is expected. It is, after all, essentially an organic computer." Sage hummed contemplatively. "ARIS, I want you to alert me when the government does something about the attack. Tell me exactly what measures they take."

"Yes, sir." ARIS acknowledged.

Sage was knocked out of her thoughts by the jarring sound of the school bell ringing. Her head immediately turned toward the entrance, and she didn't have to wait long for her glasses to single out the form of Samuel Witwicky.

"Time to stalk the Witwicky boy. I have the feeling that he will be important in the upcoming events."


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Man… this chapter took a long, long time to crank out of my brain… I hope all you viewers enjoy reading it (and also hope that you won't be too cranky about the long wait!) I think I have a more definite idea of where this storyline is going in the immediate future, so hopefully the next chapter will come sooner!

Disclaimer: I definitely do not own Transformers, nor Harry Potter. If I did, why would I be posting a fanfiction for their categories?

* * *

Defining Deviation - Chapter Four

* * *

Sage watched as Sam dropped his book bag in the back of the open-top, green car parked alongside the curb. He then slid into the front passenger-side seat, next to a middle-aged, balding man that she assumed was his father, and eagerly showed him a test of some sort.

She followed at a discreet distance, making sure to drive a bit differently from her normally reckless style, and also sending a tracking charm toward the car just in case she lost them; though it was highly unlikely.

After a few moments, right after the two Witwickys drove through the Porsche dealership, she noticed a yellow 1977 Camaro with black racing-stripes join in the procession. She didn't exactly need the sensors equipped to her glasses to tell her that it was the Cybertronian that had crash-landed in 2003. The paint-job was rather distinctive; and there was the fact that there was no one in the driver's seat. (Honestly, it probably should have surprised her that the Cybertronian could get away with that, but it really didn't after having spent her last few centuries surrounded by humans who were obviously lacking in the observational department.)

Sage watched with wary curiosity as the yellow Cybertronian followed about fifteen feet behind the Witwicky's car. She wondered briefly if she should be worried that there was a gigantic alien robot in close proximity to her. This particular Cybertronian, however, did not seem to be hostile. In fact, from the previous records of his activities that she had gathered, she would be willing to bet (conservatively, as she was a bit stingy with her belongings) that it tried to protect humans; in prior confrontations with others of it's race, the yellow alien had fought only after being attacked, and tried to keep the brawling away from populous areas with easily squish-able citizens.

Still, she would definitely be careful. In the immortal words of her previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, 'Constant Vigilance!' (Even though it was technically a Death Eater using a potion to pose as her rightful Professor.) But then, she always stood by the belief that it wasn't paranoia if they really were out to get you; and with all of her near-experiences (they still counted, even if she was immortal) she could safely say that the were almost _always_ out to get her.

Sage's nose crinkled slightly as the Witwicky car pulled into a dusty car-dealership. It was completely shoddy and the clown advertising the place with a sign looked like he was about to have a heat stroke under all of the make-up slathered onto his face. There was an overhang with a few cars underneath it, as well as stand-up letters that said, 'Bolivia's Auto Sales'; underneath that was painted 'Finest Quality Cars' in white paint that was so faded that it nearly blended in with the surface it was on.

Keeping a somewhat bored eye on the proceedings, she watched as the boy looked around with a somewhat disbelieving expression at the crappy place his father had brought him to. Touching the pad of her index finger to her wireless, one-ear headset, she sent a bit of magic into it to change the settings to what she called 'listening mode'.

The first sound that filled her ears was the god-awful music playing from the dinosaur speakers installed into the overhang. She quickly tuned it out and focused on what her stalkee was saying.

"-well, my son here - looking to buy his first car." she heard the father, Ron Witwicky say as he put a hand on his teenage son's shoulder.

"You come to see me?" Bolivia - she presumed - said in a greasy, falsely-humble voice, putting a brown hand to his chest.

"Had to." Sam mumbled under his breath. Sage could definitely hear a bit of resentment in that statement.

Bolivia was either oblivious, or chose to ignore the tone of voice, because he continued onward.

"Well, that practically makes us family!" He exclaimed in a 'I'm going to make some money' voice. "Uncle Bobby B., baby." he said, reaching out to shake Sam's hand. "Uncle Bobby B."

"Sam." the teenager replied unenthusiastically with a grimace - that was no doubt supposed to be a polite smile - on his face.

"Sam!" Bolivia exclaimed. "Let me talk to ya." he said, grabbing the teen by the back of his neck and steering him toward the majority of the used cars. "Sam, your first enchilada of freedom awaits you." he said, and then pointed toward another overhang with two cars parked beneath it. "Underneath one of those hoods."

As the tackily dressed man continued to make a sales pitch, Sage watched with disbelief as the Cybertronian that had been following the Witwicky car drove up between the two used cars Bolivia had pointed to and parked itself.

'Is it trying to get bought by the boy?' she thought incredulously.

Her ears turned back into the conversation just as Bolivia told Sam that 'he was a lot of things, but a liar was not one of them'; she nearly choked on her spit in sheer disbelief.

Sage watched disbelievingly as Bolivia directed the Witwickys toward the hiding-in-wait, highly advanced, alien robot. Her mouth twitched violently as she watched the younger Witwicky actually _climb into _the yellow 1976 Camaro with black racing stripes.

She watched with a tiny bit of trepidation mixed with a whole lot of curiosity as Sam declared that he liked the car/alien robot. Bolivia seemed confused at finding a car he had never seen before parked in his lot, but shamelessly decided to make some money out of selling it anyway. Upon finding that Ron Witwicky was a cheap father however, he ordered Sam to get out of the driver's seat.

"Hey! But you said that the car picks the driver!" Sam protested without relinquishing his seat. Sage winced as his voice almost cracked in the middle of his sentence.

"And sometimes, the car picks a driver with a cheapass father. Get out of the car, kid." Bolivia muttered to the teenager, before moving on to another sales pitch and gesturing to the faded yellow Volkswagen Beetle parked right next to the Cybertronian.

Sam reluctantly exited the Cybertronian, watching with a bit of teenage angst as Bolivia climbed into the Beetle to demonstrate.

Sage gave a highly amused smile as the passenger side door of the 'Camaro' abruptly opened and smashed into the Bug. The Witwickys jumped in surprise as Bolivia tried to brush it off and moved on to a different car after extracting himself from the Bug.

The Cybertronian must have really wanted to go home with Sam, because next, it made sure that it would be the only car Sam would be _able_ to buy. The Cybertronian emitted a high-pitched noise that sounded mechanical, shattering all of the glass in the nearby cars.

Thankfully, Sage had charmed the windows of her car to be nigh unbreakable, along with a few other particularly useful enchantments. However, the high-frequency sound wave also had the effect of nearly overloading her earpiece.

"Gah!" she exclaimed in pain, ripping the device from its perch on the side of her head. It actually wasn't that bad compared to some of the things she had been through over the years, but the suddenness factored in. Touching her hand to her ear, she pulled it into her line of vision, and found a small smudge of blood.

Glaring sullenly, a pout on her face even as her burst eardrums started to heal, she watched as the Witwickys walked inside to finalize the purchase of their alien robot.

'Stupid rust-bucket popped my eardrums.' she thought grumpily, looking into the rearview mirror to watch her ear glow purple with magic as her sound-induced injuries finished healing themselves.

Nothing too interesting happened after that, unless you count a teenage boy buying an advanced alien life form as a mode of transportation interesting. Sam drove his new 'car' back to his house, Sage following at a discrete distance.

"I still don't understand." Sage said aloud as she parked her car across the street from the Witwicky residence, a tiny bit of irritation slipping into her voice. She _hated_ not knowing things; especially things as potentially significant as this. "Why would this Cybertronian only act now? It's been here four years. What has recently changed to let it know that Sam has whatever it's been looking for?"

"I am a computer program created by you, not a god." ARIS said dryly. "I don't confess to knowing the inner workings of the mind of an alien robot anymore than you."

Ignoring ARIS for the moment, Sage reviewed what she already did know about Sam Witwicky. Everything she had found pointed to him being nothing more than an ordinary kid. Sure, his ancestor had found Iceman on an exploration trip, but he himself wasn't really anything special. Sage pulled up all of the files she had on the boy on the dashboard screen, flicking through them at a rapid pace.

Suddenly, she blinked, and backtracked.

"You have got to be kidding me." she deadpanned. Staring her in the face was an eBay page, and on display was a certain pair of glasses. Now looking closer, she could see little scratches on the lenses. "This is the only recent thing in the Witwicky boy's life, but what is so important about an old pair of glasses?"

Sage stared blankly at the screen for a moment, before looking out the car window at the Witwicky's house. 'I need to examine those glasses.' she determined.

Just as she was contemplating the best way to get her hands on the glasses as soon as possible, her thoughts were interrupted by ARIS.

"Sir, I have intercepted a call from a Major William Lennox heading toward the Pentagon. He called about sending in air support. There were sounds of gunfire and machinery clicking in the background." ARIS reported dutifully. "Satellite images from that location show the scorpion-like drone that was dispatched by the Cybertronian that recently attacked the base in Qatar was trying to kill them. Two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs from Strike Package Bravo were sent to open fire on the drone. Eventually the drone retreated, burrowing into the sand. It left behind part of its tail, which is presumably being brought back with them for analysis."

Sage absently chewed her bottom lip as she listened to the report. When it was finished however, an anticipatory grin spread across her face, bearing her teeth in an almost vicious-looking expression.

"Now I really have to see what's so special about those glasses. They must have something pretty extraordinary about them to put in motion this much Cybertronian activity." Sage said near gleefully. "While I'm getting those glasses, ARIS, make sure that you find out what happens to that tail fragment and record what they learn from it."

"Yes sir." The computer's blank voice filled the car.

Clapping her palms together almost giddily, Sage then touched a hand to the frame of her enchanted glasses. Turning her line of vision to the house across the street, she set the functions of her eyewear to the 'heat-vision' mode. Looking through the walls of the Witwicky house, she saw a few bright red-orange figures that were obviously humans, as well as a smaller one that looked to be some sort of pet.

Examining the shape of each of the figures, she determined that the one upstairs was definitely the teenaged Witwicky boy.

'Good. That must be his bedroom. The glasses will probably be in there.' she thought to herself. 'Now I just need to wait for him to leave.'

Sinking back into the comfortable car seat, she stared blankly at the house she was staking-out. The numbness that often accompanied boredom spread across her mind like some kind of disease as she mindlessly tracked the warm-colored blob across his living area.

After only a few seconds of this monotonous activity, Sage smacked herself in the forehead.

'God, am I a witch or not?' she thought, full of self-scorn for a moment. 'This is like wanting to light a fire and looking around for wood or something!' (A/N: Hur hur hur.)

Opening the door to her car, Sage slid out of her seat and onto the pavement. Discretely casting a Notice-Me-Not Charm, she walked around to the back of her vehicle. Grabbing the handle and pulling the trunk open, she reached in and pulled out a broomstick. She briefly thanked the fact that she learned the set of charms to make spaces bigger on the inside, before casting a handy Disillusionment Charm.

Settling herself into place, she took a second or two to enjoy the feeling of wind flowing through her hair, before steering her broomstick over to the window of Sam's room. Peering through the glass, she watched as the teen checked his computer, coincidentally checking the eBay page for the very pair of glasses that she was going to steal.

"Great. I'm still broke." she heard him mutter to himself. "Way to pick up girls, Sam." he said to himself sarcastically.

'Ah, to be young and hormonal…' Sage thought with a tinge of amusement, before taking aim, and sending a spell toward the teenage boy.

The spell rippled through the air almost invisibly, before splashing into the boy's torso. There was barely a hitch in Sam's movements as he suddenly remembered something else to do - not inside his room.

Sage anxiously checked over her shoulder to see if the Cybertronian parked in the driveway had felt the energy she had used, but it seemed that the small spells that she had done weren't nearly enough to register as All Spark energy - even with the extremely advanced technology the alien robot was no doubt equipped with.

Looking back into the boy's bedroom, she watched as he picked up the keys to his 'car' and left the room. After waiting a few more minutes to watch as he drove the disguised Camaro out of the driveway and down the street, she touched a foot down inside the room and brought her broomstick inside with her.

Looking down through the floor with her glasses, Sage scanned the house for the Witwicky parents. They weren't anywhere near the stairs, so she turned her vision to search the room for the glasses. Surprisingly, the room was actually pretty clean when you considered that a teenaged boy inhabited it, and that helped with her search.

Quickly locating the glasses, she walked over to the desk and opened up the backpack that was resting on top of it. Sage triumphantly pluck the glasses from their pocket, and held them up to the sunlight streaming through the window to examine the scratches on the lenses.

She didn't find anything exceptionally interesting with just a short glance, and though she wanted to let out a 'hmmm' of contemplation, she stayed quiet for the sake of stealth. Sage turned to leave the room, walking over toward the window, but then paused, and then tucked the glasses into a pocket on the inside of her coat.

Moving back to the center of the bedroom, she glanced around the layout of the room. After a few seconds, she reached into her magically enlarged pockets, and pulled out a few tiny machines. They were little cameras, no bigger than a baby's toenail, and they recorded sound as well as video. The were powered with electricity, but if that ran out, or if they were hit with an EMP, there was a back-up supply of magic. If someone tried to open one up to see how it worked, they would self-destruct in an explosion that coats someone's entire hand in second and third degrees burns.

In case you couldn't tell, Sage had made them when she was going through one of her more paranoid phases.

Sage placed three of the cameras in strategic places around Sam's bedroom so that she'd be able to see every inch of it, including the window and doorway. Just in case, she also cast a Disillusionment Charm on each one.

Satisfied with her work, Sage hopped out of the window, expertly landing on her broomstick mid-fall and then coasting back toward her car.

After putting her broomstick back into her car trunk, she climbed back into the car. Reaching into her pocket, she took out the glasses and started to examine them.

"Drive the car back home ARIS." Sage ordered absently as she continued to look over the scratches on the glasses' lenses. She barely noticed it when ARIS replied in the affirmative, and didn't even complain as the computer started to drive the car back to her house in a decidedly slow manner (Well, compared to her own driving).

'Now to figure out the mystery of these glasses.' she thought to herself.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: I'm sorry for the long… long wait. But thankfully, since I recently received the Transformers DVD as a birthday present, I'll probably have the inspiration to crank out the next few chapters pretty quickly. Here's hoping. Well, hoping that my family doesn't get to irritated with me watching the same movie over and over again.

* * *

Defining Deviation - Chapter Five

* * *

"Well, that was anti-climactic." Sage stated flatly as she looked down at the scratched glasses set on the table in front of her, a mild pout twisting her lips. She had worked for a while (as evidenced by her rolled up sleeves and messier than usual hair) before figuring out what was so special about the glasses. Currently, there was a small light projector directly behind the lenses, casting a beam of light through the scratches. The light came out on the other side, transformed into a 3d schematic of the previous location of the All Spark - somewhere on the floor of a body of water in Colorado.

She slumped down into her cushy office chair and a smirk spread across her face - she couldn't help but be amused at the situation. "The first sign of major Cybertronian action since Iceman crash-landed, and the thing that got the ball rolling was a teenager putting some old glasses with obsolete coordinates scratched onto them up for sale on the internet. I mean, Sector Seven found the All Spark around, I dunno, 1913?"

While Sage contemplated the existence of gods of irony yet again, ARIS received some more news. She promptly reported the obtainment of said data to her creator, now that Sage was finished with her work and ARIS wouldn't be interrupting - it was a pet-peeve of the witch that her computer was well attuned to.

"Sir, while you were examining the Witwicky glasses, the government was holding a meeting, attended by a gathering of computer experts. Their purpose for being there was discern exactly who or what hacked the military network and destroyed the air base in Qatar." ARIS reported dutifully. "Also, because they know that the Cybertronian in Qatar was stopped before it could finish, they are taking precautions against another attempt."

ARIS paused, as was programmed into her speech patterns to allow for the time it took for the human brain to process information. "Not long afterward, a Cybertronian signal was detected on Air Force One, attempting to hack into the files surrounding Iceman." she reported. "The Cybertronian managed to plant an adaptive spider-bot virus in the system while simultaneously downloading information on anything mentioning the All Spark. Its attempt was stopped when a young analyst by the name of Maggie Madsen detected it, and the mainframe was unplugged before the download could be finished, but not before it managed to find information on the Witwicky glasses - presumably making the connection between them and the All Spark. And on a side note, the Cybertronian currently posing as Samuel Witwicky's car shone some sort of beacon into the atmosphere during the night - presumably signaling others in its faction to come to Earth."

"Air Force One, huh?" Sage chuckled as she leaned back in her chair, her arms stretching to rest leisurely behind her head. "Must be one of the smaller Cybertronians to sneak in there. Haven't seen one of them except that one I accidentally made when I was still figuring out how to regulate my power output." she mused to herself. "Was this hacker going specifically after the same information as the one in Qatar?" Sage asked, already sure of the answer.

"Yes, sir." ARIS replied. "Both hackers were searching for information on Iceman, and in the process, the All Spark."

A small smirk spread across her face. "And what little information the thing did manage to acquire is about the outdated location of obsolete coordinates." she chuckled quietly as she fiddled with the glasses. All that fuss over such an irrelevant object…

Sage shook her head, moving her thoughts onto other matters. "Still, I want you to expand the parameters of your reports to include updates on the Witwicky boy - he'll probably be coming into contact with hostile Cybertronians who think he has those glasses. Or maybe even non-hostile Cybertronians who think he has those glasses."

After receiving a confirming beep from ARIS, Sage rhythmically moved her foot up and down, making her chair squeak as she thought over her next course of action. Eventually, she decided that there wasn't enough data for her to go on to make any drastic movements. The only things she knew, were that there were multiple Cybertronians searching for information on Iceman and the All Spark, while the other one (presumably on the opposing side in the war that the All Spark had mentioned) was currently posing as a teenage boy's first car - and was probably after the glasses she had recently snatched, or at least preventing the others from getting them. She had no idea as to the ultimate goals of either faction, and so had no idea as to which side she would help if she did decide to join in the war.

What she could deduce about either side so far, was that the yellow and black Camaro Cybertronian seemed to be considerate of human life - despite their apparent primitiveness in comparison to its own species. Also, it seemed to be operating in the position of a scout for its faction - seeing as it sent a signal into outer space - meaning that there were presumably more on their way to Earth.

The side with multiple Cybertronians already on the planet seemed to have the collective opinion that human lives were unimportant, and had no problem in ending them.

So far, it looked like the Camaro's group was the one composed of aliens that would make an effort not to squish her when walking.

Still, it would be idiotic to act without knowing all the details. And Sage had little (read 'no') patience for idiots, and so had no intention to start acting like one.

'The Devil is in the details, after all.' she mused to herself. It was the entire reason she had created her comprehensive information network. She had made sure to put in tiny little undetectable programs into each major database that popped up over the years. Their function was to open up a 'back door' for her, making an easy path of travel for her whenever she had the urge to peek into the government databases of any major country, or the networks of big corporations specializing in technology, or even Sector Seven's computer systems.

So, with no course of action that appealed to her sense of Slytherin discretion, Sage decided to put her centuries of hard-won patience to use, and leaned back in her chair to wait.

* * *

Sometime later, the serene voice of ARIS awoke her from her impromptu nap. "Sir, you should know that there are two Cybertronian energy signatures traveling toward the Witwicky residence. One of them seems to be the small one that hacked Air Force One, and is currently riding inside the other, which is disguised in the form of a police cruiser."

Sage's eyes snapped open, and she sprung from her chair, moving toward the table with the glasses on it. She snatched them up and stowed them away in the pocket of her pants.

"How far away are they, and how long until they arrive?" she asked quickly as she strode toward the stairs leading to her garage, cramming the listening/communications devices into her ears as she went.

"They are only a few miles away, and only minutes from coming into contact with the boy, who seems to be moving toward them. The Cybertronian posing as his car is also following."

Her brow furrowed slightly as she slid into her car, quickly starting it up and zipping down the driveway.

"Why is the boy moving toward them? Does he know they are there?" she asked herself, and automatically ARIS as well.

"He seems to be fleeing in terror from the Cybertronian posing as his car." ARIS stated.

Sage was silent for a moment, even as she drove like a maniac, accelerating over the speed limit, and barely slowing down on turns. "So he's running away from the more human-friendly Cybertronian… straight towards a couple of 'em that probably wouldn't hesitate to squish him for the glasses that he no longer has." Her eyes rolled in sarcasm. "Brilliant."

Sage stayed silent for the rest of the journey, and as soon as she was in Tranquility, she focused her senses to hone in on the tracking charm she had placed on the Camaro-disguised alien. By following the charm, she soon came toward the edge of the city, where the only buildings were some abandoned construction sites and a parking garage.

The breaks on the cars screeched in protest as they were harshly slammed down by Sage's instinctive reaction to seeing a giant robot around 18 feet tall come roaring through the wall of a building as it chased a couple of teens.

Sage watched intently as the teens, one of whom she identified as Sam Witwicky, ran for their lives. The Cybertronian looked like it was about to catch up to them, when suddenly, the yellow Cybertronian - still in its guise as a Camaro - came out of no where, and managed to drift sideways and trip up the other alien. It then opened up a door, which the teens dove into after a moment of hesitation to escape the death-dealing robot behind them. The Camaro peeled off down the street, turning a corner almost instantly.

The Cybertronian that had been tripped, leapt to its feet, kept moving, and in one smooth motion had transformed into a police car that gave chase without losing a bit of momentum.

"Sir." ARIS spoke up, her voice completely dissonant with the scene right out of an action flick that had just occurred outside the car.

"This had better be important ARIS." Sage said simply as she pushed on the accelerator and mentally tracked the output of the tracking charm she had put on the yellow Cybertronian. She also pressed a few buttons on the interior of the car that would activate a 'Notice-me-not' charm, as well as a strong shielding charm around the exterior of the vehicle.

"It is, sir. Especially seeing as a violent encounter with a Cybertronian is looking more likely by the second." ARIS stated in a tone of voice that conveyed exactly what she thought of her creator following a couple of giant robots that were liable to start a highly destructive brawl. "The detached tail of the Cybertronian that attacked the soldiers has been studied. They have found that the armor heals itself, or shrugs off most forms of attack. However, the only damage that lasted was caused by sabot rounds."

Sage hummed slightly. "Maybe I can transfigure the round on my guns…" was all she managed to say before she was forced to abruptly stop her car as two Cybertronians came roaring by once again.

She cautiously followed, staying in the shadows in case the 'Notice-me-not' was less effective on alien robots, and saw the Camaro swerve once again, drifting with the momentum as it turned to face its pursuer. One of it's back doors also popped open, and the boy and girl both tumbled out, crab-walking backwards away from what probably seemed to them a demon-possessed car.

Then, the yellow car transformed into its more humanoid form, Sage watching in fascination at the completely smooth movements of machinery. She caught a glimpse of a surprisingly expressive metal face, before a yellow and black face mask dropped down over its features, and the robot settled into a defensive stance in front of the two humans.

The cop car came tearing around the corner not a second later, not bothering to slow down before once again transforming into robot form. Sage saw something small and silver detach itself from the Cop-bot, before it used the momentum of its vehicle form to tackle the Camaro-bot.

Sage's eyes, used to tracking smaller shiny objects from her years of Quidditch playing, saw the spiked silver ball uncurl into a smallish robot that only vaguely resembled a human in structure. It seemed supremely unconcerned by the giant droid death match currently taking place behind it, and immediately began scuttling over to where the humans were currently watching the proceedings in stunned silence, vocalizing strange metallic clicks and whirrs as it moved.

The humans took that as a cue to start hauling ass, the boy screaming all the while. The little robot soon caught up, however, and latched a clawed hand onto the hem of the Witwicky boy's pants. Said boy immediately tripped, but kept wriggling so much that he managed to free himself, and continued running for his life, albeit without his pants.

The little robot quickly discarded the garments and darted after the boy once again.

Sage watched dubiously as the human girl, who had briefly disappeared, reentered the fray - this time wielding a hack saw she had acquired from who knows where. She ran toward the boy, who was currently cornered by the robot against a fence which he futilely tried to climb. The robot managed to once again grab Sam's ankle, but before it could do more than pull him to the ground, the girl arrived. With a swipe of the rotating blade, the silver robot was decapitated.

Its head was punted with extreme prejudice by the pants-less boy.

Meanwhile, the Camaro-bot seemed to have the upper hand in its own fight. Both it and the Cop-bot were brawling, rolling around, getting in cheap shots, and crushing their surroundings in the process. Suddenly, Camaro-bot managed to get in what looked like an extremely painful shot at Cop-bot. The severe injury, combined with the defeat of its silver partner, prompted the Cop-bot to retreat.

The sudden silence was almost unbearable in contrast to the loud crashing of the giant robot fight. The two humans hesitantly made their way toward the tiny hill that separated the two battlegrounds, the Camaro-bot meeting them in the middle as it stopped on the crest of the hill. Its battle mask was once again removed, and Sage was surprised to see the features of its face looked very human.

The boy coaxed the girl forward, surprisingly brave considering the little girl screams he had emitted earlier. Sage turned up the volume on her listening devices.

"…robot." she heard him say, never tearing his own eyes away from the Cybertronian. "But like a… like a different.. You know, like a super-advanced robot."

There was a pause.

"It's probably Japanese." Sam said, mostly to himself. "Yeah, it's definitely Japanese."

Sage rolled her eyes in disbelief. She wondered if it was the shock of the situation that made him sound as dull-witted as he did. Japanese, _honestly_.

Still, the boy inched closer to his 'car'.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked sharply in incredulity as her fellow human got into what she thought was too close a range to the giant robot that had just been embroiled in an extremely violent melee with another of its kind.

"I don't think it wants to hurt us. It would have done that already." he said.

The girl scoffed slightly, "Really? Do you speak robot? Because I know I don't. And they just had, like, a giant droid death match."

"I think it want's something from me." Sam said dubiously, "'Cause the other one was talking about my eBay page."

The girl stared at him like he was crazy for a moment. "…you are the strangest boy I have ever met." she said bluntly.

"Can you talk?" the boy ask the Camaro-bot.

Sage was surprised in how the Cybertronian answered. It seemed to communicate through the radio, stringing together bits and pieces of different programs to get his meaning across.

"…XM Satellite Radio... Digital cable brings you... Columbia Broadcasting System…" the words played through its speakers.

"So you.. you talk through the radio?" Sam asked uncertainly.

Applause played from the radio, "Thank you, you're beautiful. You're wonderful." The robot was surprisingly playful as it mimed capping, and then pointed at the boy like he had answered correctly on a quiz show.

"So what was that - what you did last night?" the boy asked curiously.

Sage leaned forward in her leather seat, wanting to know the answer as well.

"Message from Starfleet, Captain... Throughout the inanimate vastness of space... Angels will rain down like visitors from heaven! Hallelujah!" a myriad of voices played, switching from a military sounding voice, to a monotone lecturer, to an exuberant preacher of some sort.

Sage quickly translated the meaning of the mish-mashed phrases in her head. So she had been correct. It had been a homing beacon to others of its kind, or at least a status report of some kind.

The boy, however, seemed at a loss. "Visitors from heaven? What?"

The girl seemed to understand though, and quickly cut in. "What are you, like, an alien or something?"

The robot seemed to think the answer was obvious, because it didn't bother to answer. Instead, it seemed to shrink downward as it reverted to its car form. The door once again popped open. "Any more questions you want to ask?" came a sarcastic western drawl from the radio.

"He wants us to get in the car." the boy stated the obvious.

As the two teenagers debated the merits of crawling inside a super-advanced, giant, alien robot - it was a matter of self-preservation versus 'don't you want to say you had the guts to do it?' - Sage sighed slightly, and quietly restarted her car.

Both the teenagers got in, of course. They were, after all, teenagers.

Sage followed at a distance, relying more on the tracking charm than sight. She assumed that the Cybertronian was headed toward some rendezvous point with those of its faction that had responded to the beacon it had let off the night before, and she definitely wanted to be there. However, the Camaro-bot was probably on high alert for any potential enemies after the encounter with the Cop-bot, and she didn't want to attract any attention quite yet.

There was a bit of a dicey moment when the 'car' went through a tunnel, and came out on the other end as a completely different model, but with the tracking charm, in conjunction with the distinctive paintjob, it was easy to make sure she was following the right vehicle. The Camaro-bot soon came to a stop, overlooking a large empty expanse of land.

"Sir." ARIS spoke up, her voice filling the silence of the car. "I have detected four Cybertronians approaching Earth's atmosphere. Their projected course will land them within twenty miles of your current location."

"I can see that, ARIS." And she really could. The Cybertronians looked like shooting stars as they lit up with heat upon entering the atmosphere. Sage tracked them with her eyes, focusing particularly on the one that looked as if it were going to land the closest.

It crashed about a football field and a half away from the two teens standing by the Camaro-bot. Apparently the two were more on the reckless side of the self-preservation scale, because they immediately started jogging toward it, their faces alit with wonder and curiosity.

Sage was tempted to follow them for a second, but instead decided to stay back and listen to ARIS' reports on their landings.

One landed on some poor guy's moped. One landed in someone's backyard pool. The last one landed just off the side of the interstate.

Sage exhaled, slightly relieved that they all had seemed to escape being caught on film. That meant it would take a little bit longer for Sector Seven to track each individual one down - not knowing their appearances.

She looked up just in time to see the Camaro-bot drive toward its charges, and once again open a door in a silent instruction to get in. Apparently, it had a little farther to go - possibly to a more discreet area - to meet up with the rest of its allies.

Sage followed, once again at a distance. The yellow Cybertronian drove into the outskirts of town, coming to a stop in a sparse alley, occupied only by a couple dumpsters. It was late enough, however, that there were no humans around.

Sage grimaced slightly as she realized if the other Cybertronians were as big as the yellow one, there wouldn't be enough room in the alley for her to bring her car in and still remain undetected. Sure, she could take care of herself, but the car added extra protection if the Cybertronians turned out to be more hostile than the yellow one seemed.

She got out of the car, cast a Notice-me-not Charm, a Disillusionment Charm, and another one that would render her undetectable to the senses. She managed to climb up onto the roof of one side of the alley just in time to see a few colorful cars arrive from both directions.

One side, there was a large semi-truck. It was colored a royal blue, with decals of red flames. Approaching from the other side were a bright neon yellow-green rescue vehicle, a gigantic black pickup truck with smoke stacks, and sleek silver car that looked small in comparison.

The teens, who had gotten out of the Camaro-bot, were warily trying to watch their approach from both sides at the same time.

Suddenly, once they were close enough to the center of the alley, they all began transforming. A shiver ran down Sage's spine as she once again witnessed the smooth transition from vehicle to robot. It made her hands itch to see how they worked.

The newer Cybertronians were all even taller than the Camaro-bot, except for the silver one. The semi-truck was the tallest, and if she was reading it correctly, was probably the leader of the bunch. They were all beautiful to an inventor like Sage, foreign, yet familiar in design, but extremely interesting all the same.

The Semi-bot knelt down in front of the teens, still towering over them, but closer to their level. It leaned in close enough that Sage began to think Cybertronians had no concept of personal space, and seemed to focus on Sam particularly.

"Are you Samuel Jamese Witwicky, descendant of Archibald Witwicky?" he - for Sage could tell it was definitely a he from the delightfully smooth baritone voice he had - asked directly.

"They know your name." the girl hissed in Sam's ear.

"Yeah." was all the boy could seem to get out of his mouth.

The Semi-bot ignored their whispers and continued speaking. "My name is Optimus Prime." he introduced himself. "We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron. But you can call us Autobots for short."


End file.
